Abandoned Tunnel

Abandoned Tunnel

After buying a dirt bike that is legal to ride on the roads, I have been planning routes and trails that avoid other vehicles as much as possible. Exploring back-roads and trails is interesting, fun, and hopefully will keep me from being ran over by a texting motorist.

One of the possible trails I was looking at is the old Rock Island Railroad right of way from Beaufort, MO to Eldon, MO. This line is abandoned, and most of the rail and ties have been removed, as it is being considered by the state of Missouri for a rail-trail conversion. http://www.gasconadecountyrepublican.com/content/trail-meeting-hosted-state-park-officials-leaves-visitors-mixed-opinions

Ultimately, the old railroad line looks way too sketchy in most parts for trying to ride on the dirt bike. The biggest problem being bridges that would be terrifying to ride over, especially the 1,800 ft long span that passes 100′ over the top of the Gasconade River.

While not a stranger to sketchy bridges…

…riding over a railroad bridge presents the unique danger of having no guardrails, so if you fall, which I do often enough for it to be a real concern, you will likely just go over the side. The bike would be fine up there, but i’d be in a pile of brokenness below.

Other problems are, overgrown sections, large areas that have dissolved into peoples farms and yards, oh, and it is all still private property.

After exploring the line all the way to Eldon via google satellite, I decided it is mostly a no go for dirt biking, but realized that seeing some of the old bridges and stuff would be pretty cool.

A surprise I found while exploring the sat images:

Do you see the old rail line disappear for a bit? That is pretty cool!

So, I have created back-road/gravel routes to the bridges and three such tunnels. I do not know if we’ll be able to actually get to them or not, but it should be fun to try.

Being a cold and windy December day, we decided to load up the kids in the old Suburban, and take one of the dirt bike routes.

The kids were not enthused at the notion of a several hour back road trip, but since their friends were along sharing their misery, they chose to try and see a tunnel over visiting the old prison camp on the lake, which we have seen before.

We first drove 45 minutes to Steve’s to get medicine for one of the kids, and then went to set out on our explorations.

The Suburban had other plans. It decided Steve’s driveway was the best spot to spend the day, and refused to start.

Before calling Kari to come and get us, we messed with the battery, since it wasn’t getting enough juice to turn over, and ultimately tracked the problem down to a crappy connection at the starter. Luckily the Suburban is tall enough that you can almost sit under there and work.

Terminals cleaned and reattached, she fired up and was once again providing us with transportation and heat. Off we go.

After arriving in Eugene, we drove past this little park and let the kids play until they got bored and/or cold. We were pretty sure it was a park anyway. It had what could have been overflow from nearby yards in it.

After the little park we headed to the edge of town to search for the tunnel.

At dinner, when Alli was telling the story, she spoke of the no trespassing sign that was stern and said violators will be subject to prostitution 😐 Really Alli? Are they even going to whore out poor little Jacey?

The old roadbed had become a creek in many places from the previous couple of days of rain. Lining the sides were brush complete with thorn filled vines.

Rounding the gentle curve, we were all filled with excitement as the old tunnel portal came into view.

While we could see clean through the tunnel, as we got closer, it became clear that it was a long dark gap between us and the light at the other end.

We milled around, and admired it’s vastness while I told the kids “the locals say, if you were there at midnight you can still hear an old steam whistle blow. The whistle is said to be from the locomotive of a passenger train that derailed in the tunnel in 1907 and caught fire killing all of the passengers.”

None of that is true, but kids are so gullible.

None of us were sure if we wanted to walk through to the other side. Except Alli and Dev. They wanted to, even though we brought no flashlights. Trying to dissuade them by talking about rats the size of raccoons did not work, and they persuaded us to walk through.

Built in 1903, and abandoned in 1979, this tunnel is 1,667 ft long and was one of four tunnels in Missouri along the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad.

After passing to the other side the kids chose to walk back through without using their phone flashlights.

In the end they agreed that the tunnel was cooler than the old prison camp.

Except Jace.

Jace was cold and pissed off. His frustration was punctuated at the end of our walk, when his attempt to pee in the woods next to the truck was thwarted by big dogs that came charging at us from town and forced us to the safety of the truck. Fortunately for Jace, the dogs were too big of sissies to cross the little wooden bridge we came in over.

Peeing complete, we graveled back to the house.

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